Saturday, February 25, 2006

This was probably the first thing to come to mind, really. I can hear the sucking...can't you? Check the smugness on his grill, too. The way larger version is here.

Highlighting a Pivotal Moment in a Song via a capella, 2006 • graphite, Staedtler pigment liner and Photoshop®

I really wanted to do this last week, but it just didn't happen. The photo reference was taken by my boss and editor David Jón Fuller and is of the Ron Halldorson Trio. I think this might serve as reference for a future project. Not sure yet.Illustrators like Burt Goldblatt, David Stone Martin, Andy Warhol, and Evan Hecox were a big influence on this.Larger version? Here.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

My old pal Mike Opitz went and digitized this thing I had to do for school (and I use the term "school" lightly. The Winnipeg chapter of the National Institute of Broadcasting was a bunch two-bit shysters. Fuck 'em.). Man, I wish my editing was tighter.Jeope and I wrote this at Mike's old apartment (where this was shot) for shits n' giggles, and then I decided to do a short film of it as my final project.It's a little embarrassing...kinda like pictures of you as a kid on the potty.Still kinda fun, though. That picture of "Albert"...I'd like to think I draw better than that now. It's been 10+ years.Geez, Mike, thanks for postin' this up! Heh.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Look at this fuckin' thing. He's inhuman!(Inhumanly good. No, I don't hate Aaron. Hell, I'd love to know what it's like to be as dope he is for just one day. Props to Wezz for printing that shit up lovely.)

Finally, after over 3 years of doing this weblog thing, this place finally feels like it's mine! The illustration of me is a somewhat cleaner version of a sketch I whipped up. Having liked what I did, I still decided to do an even cleaner, inked-up version of moi. Then I put it to a vote. It seems that the sketchier version was more "me" (thanks, Dan), so that's what I went with (I agreed.). As you can see, I decided to use Hellenic Wide, my favorite display typeface, for the title.Many thanks to the folks at gigposters.com for voting, and super-duper extra thanks to Ward Jenkins for showing me the ropes code-wise. Whatta guy!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

It rings true throughout life: you never know what you've got till it's gone.When he was coming up doing his thing with the Ummah (him, Q-Tip, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad), I thought it was dope, but my sourness over the emerging jiggy-era bullshit was overshadowing the good stuff he was doing. When ?uestlove was singing (more like shouting, and for good reason) the praises of Slum Village, I took notice. I should've copped that album from the get-go, because the original version of "Fall-N-Love" isn't on the re-released version, I believe, which saddens me. That song is so beautiful.Why I didn't cop that JayLib Champion Sound album, I don't know, but for some reason, I was hyped for the release of Donuts. I think I know why...like a lot of other heads who stay up-to-date via the web, I saw how bad he was lookin' due to his illness. The thing is, he was still on stage performing and in the studio. Dude knew he had something to accomplish (he was gonna drop 3 albums this year). You can't ignore that.

There are folks out there that lament the current state of hip-hop music. I'm guilty of it, and I know you are, too. We didn't have anything to complain about, though, because Jay Dee never forgot about where it came from: the heart. Everything he did had the "nod factor" that Skillz spoke of and the right amount of grit. Whether it came to dancing or chillin', Dilla had your soundtrack, because all of his beats were made for that.

It's been reported that Dilla's condition came about due to malnutrition, being that he was such a workaholic. All I can say is (and I'm speaking for my fat-ass self, too), take care of yourselves, y'all. Eat right, live right.

EDIT: For the record, my favorite Dilla-produced joint is "Runnin'" from Pharcyde's Labcabincalifornia. I know that album gets a bum rap (no pun intended) for falling short of their first, but Bizarre Ride 2... is a lofty benchmark in rap's history. There's still some noteworthy recordings on Labcabincalifornia, and that's one of 'em.Favorite solo? "Fuck the Police", hands down. I've never heard hatred sound so sweet. That beat is skull-crackin'.